Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Union Cabinet approved the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) Scheme on 11 September 2024, with the Ministry of Heavy Industries notifying it via Gazette S.O. 4259(E) on 29 September 2024. The two-year programme (1 October 2024 – 31 March 2026) has a total outlay of Rs 10,900 crore (~USD 1.3 bn). It subsumes the EMPS-2024 stop-gap and replaces FAME-II (which expired on 31 March 2024). Demand incentives cover e-2W, e-3W (incl. e-rickshaws and cargo), e-trucks, e-ambulances and e-buses; supply-side outlays fund 14,028 e-buses for state transport undertakings (via CESL aggregation), Rs 2,000 crore for EV public charging stations, and Rs 780 crore for upgrading MHI testing agencies.

Governor in Council made the China Surtax Order (2024) (SOR/2024-187) on 20 September 2024 under subsection 53(2) of the Customs Tariff, imposing a 100% surtax on Chinese-origin electric and certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses, and delivery vans (HS chapters 87.02–87.04) effective 1 October 2024. An amending order (SOR/2024-202, registered 11 October 2024) extended a 25% surtax to a defined list of Chinese-origin steel and aluminum products (HS chapters 72 and 76) effective 22 October 2024. Canada framed the measures as a response to Chinese state-led overcapacity, non-market subsidies, and weak labour/environment standards, and explicitly aligned them with the US Section 301 hike and the EU's parallel anti-subsidy duties on Chinese EVs.

On 26 July 2024 the Thai National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee (EV Board), chaired by Deputy PM Pichai Chunhavajira, approved a dedicated excise-tax incentive package for hybrid-electric-vehicle (HEV, ≤ 10-seat passenger) manufacturing distinct from the BEV-only EV 3.5 regime. Qualifying manufacturers receive a locked excise rate of 6% on HEVs emitting ≤ 100 g CO2/km and 9% on 101-120 g CO2/km vehicles for the 2028-2032 period, conditional on a minimum new investment of THB 3 billion during 2024-2027, BOI approval, mandatory use of key Thai-produced parts, and inclusion of at least four of six listed ADAS safety features. The measure is expected to draw THB 50 billion (~USD 1.4 billion) in additional HEV manufacturing investment and is positioned as the intermediate-emission complement to EV 3.5's BEV-only purchase subsidies and 2% excise rate, extending Thailand's "EV Hub of ASEAN" industrial strategy to capture Japanese OEM hybrid-platform capex (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda) alongside the Chinese-OEM BEV wave already locked in under EV 3.5. The decision required separate Cabinet endorsement and was published via the BOI /EV-Board channel rather than amending the EV 3.5 instrument.

On 26 July 2024 President Erdoğan unveiled the HIT-30 (High-Technology Investment Programme), Türkiye's largest single industrial-finance instrument since the 2018 Investment Office reform, allocating USD 30 billion in state support over 2024-2030 to attract investment across 37 priority programmes spanning electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, solar/wind energy, green hydrogen, hyperscale data centres, biotechnological medicine, industrial robotics, and R&D. The Ministry of Industry and Technology is the operating agency, with the Industrialization Executive Committee chaired by the President providing high-level oversight; an Industrialisation Executive Committee under the President directs sectoral allocations. Headline tools include USD 4.5bn earmarked for an 80 GWh battery-manufacturing capacity (with USD 6,000/MWh grants through 2030), USD 2.5bn for 15 GW of domestic solar-cell capacity, USD 1.7bn for wind-component manufacturing, USD 1bn for top-1000 corporate R&D centre support (covering 50% of personnel costs for 5 years), corporate tax reductions, social-security-contribution coverage, energy-cost subsidies covering 50% of bills for energy-intensive projects, customs/VAT exemptions, and free or discounted land allocation in organised industrial zones. Programme targets at least USD 20bn in private-sector co-investment.

The European Commission and the Republic of Serbia signed a non-legally-binding Memorandum of Understanding on 19 July 2024 at the Serbian Critical Raw Materials Summit in Belgrade, establishing a Strategic Partnership covering sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles. The MoU commits both parties to developing integrated upstream-to-downstream value chains, sharing knowledge on sustainable extraction and processing, applying high ESG standards, mobilising EU financial instruments (EIB, EBRD, Western Balkans Investment Framework, Global Gateway), and promoting skills development in battery and raw-materials sectors. Serbia's strategic importance derives from its hosting of the Jadar Valley lithium-borate deposit (Rio Tinto), estimated to contain approximately 10% of world lithium reserves and among the largest lithium deposits in Europe.

Lei 14.902/2024, sanctioned 27 June 2024 (DOU 28 June 2024), institutes the Programa Mobilidade Verde e Inovação (Programa Mover), Brazil's successor framework to Rota 2030 for the automotive ecosystem (passenger cars, trucks, buses, auto parts). The law converts Provisional Measure 1.205/2023 into permanent statute and authorises approximately R$19.3 billion (~USD 4.8 billion) in financial credits for R&D and decarbonisation projects through 2028, alongside an IPI (Industrialised Products Tax) bonus-malus regime tied to lifecycle CO2 emissions, recyclability and energy-efficiency thresholds. Vehicles meeting the strictest "Carro Sustentável" criteria (≤83 gCO2/km, ≥80% recyclability) qualify for zero-IPI treatment, while non-compliant vehicles face higher tax rates. The programme is regulated by Decreto 12.435/2025 (15 April 2025), with mandatory emissions-labelling and commercialisation requirements taking effect from 1 June 2025. The law also permits a 2% reduced import tariff rate for qualifying vehicles where the importer commits R&D spend equivalent to 2% of customs value.

Italy's Decreto-Legge 25 giugno 2024 n. 84, converted with amendments into Legge 8 agosto 2024 n. 115 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 189 of 13 August 2024, in force 14 August 2024), is Italy's national implementing instrument for Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (the EU Critical Raw Materials Act). It establishes a MIMIT-led national governance framework for strategic CRM projects spanning extraction, transformation, and recycling; creates a mandatory National Register of strategic companies and value chains with annual reporting on strategic-material import/export flows; divides permitting competence between MASE (extraction/recycling, max 18/10 months) and MIMIT (transformation, max 10 months); and designates INVITALIA and CDP as financing windows for Italian strategic-CRM projects seeking EU Strategic Project status under CRMA Article 6.

Presidential Decree (Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı) No. 8639, dated 7 June 2024 and published in the Resmi Gazete on 8 June 2024, amends Türkiye's Decision on the Application of Additional Customs Duty on Imports to impose a 40% additional ad valorem duty (or USD 7,000 per unit, whichever is higher) on China-origin passenger vehicles classified under HS heading 8703 — covering internal-combustion, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric models. The measure entered into force 30 days after publication, on 7 July 2024, with an exemption for imports made under an Investment Incentive Certificate (Yatırım Teşvik Belgesi) — explicitly designed to channel Chinese OEMs into domestic Turkish assembly.

The Diet enacted on 31 May 2024 (promulgated 7 June 2024 as Law No. 45 of 2024) the "Act on Partially Amending the Act on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness and Other Acts to Create New Business and Encourage Investment in Industries". The provisions establishing Japan's first US IRA-style production-and-sales-linked tax credit took effect 2 September 2024 per METI's press release of the same date. Eligible enterprises with a METI-certified business plan can claim tax deductions tied to domestic production-and-sales volume of five designated strategic products: electric vehicles, green steel, green chemicals, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and semiconductors. The credit is available for ten years from certification (certifications must be issued by 31 March 2027), with an annual cap of 40% of corporate tax liability (20% for semiconductors) and a 4-year carry-forward. Eligibility is conditional on meeting wage-growth or capital-investment thresholds in each fiscal year.

On 15 May 2024 the NEDA Board, chaired by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., approved a modification of Executive Order No. 12 s.2023 to expand the zero-tariff MFN regime on electric vehicles. The expansion broadens the scope from purely battery-electric four-wheeled passenger cars to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), e-motorcycles, e-bicycles, e-tricycles, e-quadricycles, nickel-metal-hydride accumulator batteries, and PHEV/BEV jeepneys and buses, with the zero MFN duty extended through 2028 (versus the five-year horizon to 2028 under the original EO 12 of 13 January 2023). The measure is a trade-flow preference designed to accelerate domestic EV adoption and attract assembly investment under the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry (CREVI); it favours Chinese, Korean, and Japanese EV exporters that dominate the addressable supply.

The European Commission approved on 8 April 2024 a €267 million Slovak State aid measure (SA.103740) under Article 107(3)(a) TFEU and the 2022 Regional Aid Guidelines to support Volvo Cars Slovakia s.r.o.'s construction of a new battery-electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in the Valaliky Strategic Industrial Park near Košice in eastern Slovakia. The facility is designed for up to 250,000 BEVs per year against a total private investment of approximately €1.2 billion, creating around 3,300 direct jobs in one of Slovakia's least-developed NUTS-2 regions. The aid takes the form of a direct cash grant and marks the single largest project-level EU state-aid notification by Slovakia in over a decade, anchoring the country's pivot from ICE-vehicle sub-assembly toward full BEV manufacturing.

On 21 March 2024, President William Ruto formally launched Kenya's Fourth Medium Term Plan 2023-2027 (MTP IV) at State House Nairobi, the final five-year implementation plan under the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint. MTP IV is the operational vehicle for the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), the Ruto administration's foundational industrial-policy and value-chain framework. The plan organises Kenya's industrial-policy push around five core BETA pillars and nine value chains: agro-processing (incl. edible-oil crops, leather, dairy, tea), textiles and apparel, housing and settlement, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, digital superhighway and creative economy, manufacturing (incl. automotive and EV motorcycle and vehicle assembly), MSME and cooperative sector strengthening, and blue-economy/natural-resource value addition. Implementation is anchored in County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) across all 47 counties and in the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs). MTP IV is the umbrella framework shaping Kenya's domestic industrial-incentive architecture, foreign-investment priorities, and AfCFTA positioning over 2023-2027. Subsequent sectoral instruments — including the Mining Royalty Collection and Management Regulations 2024 — operate within this policy perimeter. This is the first KE foundational industrial-policy filing in the register.